Digital Towns

Scottish Government Announces Digital Fund for Scotland’s Towns and City Districts

13/11/17 - The Scottish Government announced today that almost 30 towns across Scotland have been awarded specialist support to develop their Digital Towns Plans. The list of towns supported is available below.

The Digital Towns programme, which launched earlier this year is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Scotland’s Towns Partnership. The aim of the programme is to encourage Towns to think more creatively, rather than installing basic town centre WiFi and allows towns to think about smarter concepts, including using digital to manage parking, smart lighting and waste collection, and using the infrastructure in towns to deliver education, digital heritage and tourism and entrepreneurship hubs.

Inverclyde has been selected as a pilot to showcase SMART Town technology and to explore how Digital Infrastructure can solve real life problems such as virtual education, parking, lighting and air quality. A further 30 other towns will now also receive free consultancy and specialist support.

Kevin Stewart MSP, Minister for Local Government & Housing said:

“The Scottish Government has invested significant funding over the last few years to ensure Scotland’s digital connectivity provides our population with the tools to create a wide range of new economic and social benefits.

“This programme will further enhance the work we are undertaking for our towns and city districts across the country. I am really pleased to see the level of ambition and innovation being shown by these towns, and also pleased to see that a broad range of participants including councils, Business Improvement Districts and community groups are set to benefit.”

Phil Prentice, Chief Officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership said:

“Digital technology is changing our society and the way we live. It is changing the way we communicate, how we buy and sell goods and services, how we learn and how we organise our lives. Broad digital adoption and innovation will create significant economic and social value for Scotland and where there is a wider strategic fit, our town centres can play an active role in embracing the digital revolution.

We look forward to supporting these projects over the next few months and we will share the learning with all the other towns thinking about doing similar things.”

- ENDS -

Note: the towns supported under the Digital Towns Pilot Programme are as follows:

Aberdeen City

Banff

Barrhead

Clarkston

Cumbrae

Dumbarton

Dunoon

Elgin

Falkirk

Galashiels

Glasgow Byers Road and Lanes

Granton on Spey

Greenock

Hamilton

Inverness

Inverurie

Lanark

Linlithgow

Loreburn

Moffat

Newbattle

Oban

Peterhead

Prestwick

Rothesay

Shawlands

South Ayrshire

Stirling

Stornoway

Digital Towns Pilot Programme: Call for Applications

Note: this fund is now closed, and the below information is currently out of date. Please see above for the press announcement regarding this programme.

Scotland’s Towns Partnership is seeking applications from Towns, City Neighbourhoods, Business Improvement Districts and other town stakeholder organisations to participate in the national Digital Towns Pilot Programme, which is being supported by Scottish Government.

This is a competitive process in which successful applicants will be awarded a combination of potential grant funding as well as access to a free and impartial “industry expert advisor” to encourage local strategic partnerships and to offer best practice advice around digital skills, participation, design, procurement and sustainability.

The pilot programme is intended to encourage new strategic collaborations, improve digital participation and skills, and create scalable best practice models for digital deployment in Scotland’s towns/town centres and city neighbourhoods.

If your application is successful, an appointed advisor will provide consultancy and advice for your digital strategy, for example around skills, participation, design, procurement and sustainability. Each advisor will be available for a determined number of consultancy days as part of the award. Available awards are:

5 consultancy days from an expert industry advisor and £5,000 funding support.

3 consultancy days from an expert industry advisor.

Applications which are not successful will also be guided to sources of support and advice for their strategy.

Application Process

To apply for this programme, please provide information to the questions in the application form regarding the role of Digital in the strategy for your town, city neighbourhood or Business Improvement District, and the specific help, advice or support you require. Scotland’s Towns Partnership will review applications based on need and alignment with the strategic approach set out in Scotland’s Towns Digital Guidance (p7).

Digital Towns Guidance

Published in March 2017, this guidance document from Scotland's Towns Partnership aims to help improve the digital infrastructure, skills, strategic implementation and understanding of Digital in the context of Scotland’s Towns and Town Centres.

The guidance builds upon the themes within the Town Centre Action Plan and the approach promoted within the Public Wireless Programme. It aims to provide best practice, forward-thinking and guidance to stimulate a new approach towards Digital implementation which could make a step change to the future prosperity and functionality of our towns. The document can be downloaded below.